Call to cut local councils out of housing schemes

A target to build 240,000 homes annually by 2016 is unlikely to be reached Raf Makda/VIEW/Corbis

The housing shortage has become so severe in Britain that building projects should be considered by central government rather than by local authorities, according to a new report.

Housebuilding should be brought into the nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIP) regime, a report commissioned by Bond Dickinson, the law firm, and Quod, the planning consultancy, says. This would enable developers to apply directly to the government for planning permission, bypassing local authority planning regulations.

The report states that although there is widespread support across the housebuilding sector for creating large-scale settlements, such as garden cities, this will struggle to happen without a new policy from the government that overcomes the barriers to bringing forward large-scale housing.